leavening-msg – 9/6/14
Period leavening agents other than yeast.
NOTE: See also the files: BNYeast-art, yeasts-msg, beer-msg, brewing-msg, bread-msg, breadmaking-msg, flour-msg, grains-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 09:09:22 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - hildegard's cookies
CBlackwill at aol.com writes:
<< Wasn't potash used as a leavening during the Middle Ages? >>
Not that I am aware of. Hartshorn is mentioned later (early modern). Ale barm
is the most common leavening agent in medieval cookery (pre-1450 CE).
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 09:16:18 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - hildegard's cookies
CorwynWdwd at aol.com writes:
<< Anybody remember what "hartshorn" turned out to be? >>
An ammonia preparation commonly made from horn.
Ras
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 08:49:25 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D."
Subject: RE: SC - hildegard's cookies
> Wasn't potash used as a leavening during the Middle Ages?
>
> Balthazar of Blackmoor
Hartshorn, maybe. I came across one reference to it as a (possible)
leavening agent. Other than that, I haven't found any chemical leavens.
Chemical leavens start appearing in the 18th Century. I don't remember
potash being referred to as a leaven, but pearl ash (potassium carbonate,
one of the types of potash) is.
In the Middle Ages, cooks appear to have depended on yeast (ale, grape must,
sourdough, etc.), whipped in air, and oven spring to lighten their bake
goods.
Bear
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 08:54:45 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D."
Subject: RE: SC - hildegard's cookies
> Anybody remember what "hartshorn" turned out to be?
> Corwyn
Hartshorn in the Middle Ages may have been precisely that, powdered horn
from a hart. Modern hartshorn is an ammonium compound, ammonium carbonate,
IIRC.
Bear
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 07:44:04 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] steam-baking
Also sprach Terry Decker:
>In a discussion about the possible use of soda as a chemical leaven in
>China, Paul Buell suggests that it was probably a flavoring agent rather
>than a leaven.
>
>Bear
>
>>How sure are we of this translation? "soda"? I thought that rising
>>agents, with the possible exception of hart's horn were unknown
>>until the 19th Century. Perhaps these chemical rising agents were
>>known to the Chinese earlier? Or maybe this "soda" is not a rising
>>agent and what is actually doing the rising is this "leaven" which
>>I guess could be ale barm.
>>
>>THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
I've got to go with Bear here. While it appears to be the case that
chemical leaveners as we know them don't appear widely until the
nineteenth century, that doesn't mean that the chemicals used as
leaveners haven't been used for other purposes for thousands of
years. For example, soda --and note that "baking soda", or sodium
bicarbonate, may not even be what is intended here-- was used by the
Romans as a green color fixative and tenderizer for vegetables, just
as it sometimes is in recent European (esp. French) cookery. Modern
Chinese cookery also employs baking soda as a meat tenderizer,
usually for tougher steaks and tripe (you wash it off carefully
before cooking, like the lye solution in the preparation of
lutefisk). The Roman cooking soda appears to be what we call "washing
soda" or sodium carbonate, but I don't know which soda Dr. Buell is
referring to.
Ultimately, such chemicals seem to have been known to the medieval
Chinese, but whether they considered them rising agents is
questionable. Of course, modern steamed bun recipes also sometimes
call for both soda and yeast; it may be a habit so lost in tradition
we'll never know its origin.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 19:13:20 -0500
From: "Barbara Benson"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spirits of hartshorn
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
> Bear
> Hartshorn is ammonium carbonate and IIRC there is an in period reference to
> to its use in one of the German cookbooks
Is this what you are referring to?
From a cookbook from the archives of the Teutonic order, 15th Century,
Translated by Volker Bach.
[[16]] Wilthu machenn ein Hirßcornn:
item zu der zeytt alls es weig ist so nim das Gehürnn und seidtt das und
mach es sauber und schneidt das zu Scheinenn alls vill du wilst ader des
Gehirns gebinenn magst und nim ein Honeg vnd seudt die Unsauberlichkeitt
davon und nim dan Leckuchen und ßebe in und nim dan die Peis (?) die du nitt
gewinenn canst und hacke die und stoß die clein unnd nyme ein wenig Honegs
und geribenn Leckuchenn und deß Hirenn Swayß und streich es durch ein Thuch
und leg das Gehornn darein und laß es siedenn.
If you want to make hartshorn
Take the horn (antlers) when they are soft and boil them and cut them into
/Scheinenn/ (strips? slices?) as much as you like or can get of the antler.
Take honey and boil the impurities out of it, then take gingerbread and
sieve it. The /Peiß/ (?) that you can not get you take and chop finely. Add
honey and ground gingerbread and the hart's blood and pass that through a
cloth. Place the antler in it and boil it.
Serena da Riva
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:28:18 -0800
From: Elaine Koogler
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Questions....
To: Cooks within the SCA
I have a couple of questions that I suspect you guys may be able to
answer:
In one recipe, I encountered a reference to "leavening"....from de Nola:
Oranges from Xativa Which Are Crullers
Take fresh cheese and curds, and mash them in a mortar together with
eggs. Then take dough and knead the cheeses with the curds, together
with the dough, and when they are all kneaded and incorporated take a
very clean casserole, and add to it a good quantity of sweet pork fat or
sweet oil which should be fine, and when the pork lard or oil boils,
make some round masses from the aforementioned dough, like balls or
round oranges, and put them in the pot in such a way that the ball goes
swimming through the casserole, and you can make small rissoles from the
dough, or whatever forms and remarkable things you wish, and when they
take on the color of gold, remove them, and add a few more, and when
they are all fried, put them on plates, and pour honey over them, and
scatter ground sugar and cinnamon over them. But note one thing: that
you should add a little leavening to the cheeses and the eggs, and add
flour to the other, and when you make the balls grease your hands with a
little oil which should be fine and then take them to the casserole, and
once they are in if the dough crackles it is a sign that it is very
soft; and you need to add more flour until it is harder, and once the
dough is prepared and fired add the honey and sugar and cinnamon as is
described above.
What kind of leavening are they referring to? Could I get away with
using yeast?
Kiri
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 10:01:47 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
From: Robin Carroll-Mann
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions....
To: Cooks within the SCA
Kiri wrote:
> In one recipe, I encountered a reference to "leavening"....from de
> Nola:
> Oranges from Xativa Which Are Crullers
[snip]
> But note one thing: that you should add a little leavening to the
> cheeses
> and the eggs, and add flour to the other, and when you make the balls
> grease your
> hands with a little oil which should be fine
[snip]
> What kind of leavening are they referring to? Could I get away with
> using yeast?
In southern Europe, they tended to use sourdough as leavening, rather
than the ale barm that was used in northern countries. However, they
did not admire the sour flavor that comes from letting the dough sit
for a long time. (Platina warns against this in his bread-making
instructions.) If you don't have sourdough starter, you could use
yeast, but you would have to make a sponge, not add the yeast directly.
Dissolve about 2 teaspoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water. Wait 10
minutes, then add enough flour to make a mixture like thick pancake
batter. cover, and let sit for an hour or two, until it is bubbling
happily. Use some of this sponge as the leavening in the fritter
recipe.
Brighid ni Chiarain
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 10:03:58 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions....
To: Cooks within the SCA
Also sprach Elaine Koogler:
> I have a couple of questions that I suspect you guys may be able to
> answer:
> In one recipe, I encountered a reference to "leavening"....from de
> Nola:
>
> Oranges from Xativa Which Are Crullers
> What kind of leavening are they referring to? Could I get away with
> using yeast?
Presumably the recipe is calling for either sourdough starter or
barm, which would be skimmed or racked (depending on the yeast and
brew type) from actively fermenting beer or wine. Yeah, I think you
probably could use dry or compressed yeast, if you first mixed it
with a little water and maybe 1/2 tsp sugar, the way you often do to
get a "sponge" before baking with it.
I have a Latino (Colombian, I think) bakery a couple of blocks from
home, and they sell what I STR are called bunuelas that sound and
look nearly identical to what this recipe describes. In fact they do
look quite a bit like oranges. I like the detail in this recipe of
the oiled hands and the comment on the cracked dough, because it
seems likely you need to build a sort of gluten skin on each of these
as you form them. The standard technique used in some Greek fritter
recipes to achieve this would be to sort of squeeze a double fistful
of the dough out between the fingers into a round ball shape, which
you pinch off, leaving a smooth and unwrinkled surface to the
fritter, rather than that sort of convoluted surface that foods
rolled into balls can sometimes have. All I know is that when
fritters crack, they seem to tend to absorb lots of fat in the
cooking process, more so than when they don't crack, so this may be
why this is important. The ones I see in the bakery are pretty
astonishingly smooth and round.
Adamantius
From: Katja
Date: May 19, 2004 7:57:15 PM CDT
To: Stefan li Rous
Subject: [SCA-AE] Re: [sca-ae-cooks] Links: The Staff of Life
> This week's Links List is a bout Bread Bread,
> yeast, flour, Baker's Marks
> and ovens are all covered here. Thought there were
> no surviving recipes for
Aoife, as always, you absolutely rock!
Funnily enough, I discovered something just last week
regarding medieval leavening that you migh find
interesting.
While perusing Dawson's fine cakes recipe from The
good huswifes Iewell, I noticed the instruction "and a
little Gods good about a sponfull if you put in too
much they shall arise..."
Curious, I looked up the phrase "God's good" in th
OED and discovered that one of the archaeic meanings o
the phrase is barm or yeast. :)
toodles, Katja
=====
Katja's Middle Eastern Dance Page
http://www.geocities.com/katjaorlova/MEdance.html
AEthelmearc Cooks Guild http://www.geocities.com/aecooks/CMain.html
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 15:17:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Robin Carroll-Mann
Subject: Re [Sca-cooks] OOP: 17th century French breadmaking
To: Cooks within the SCA
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Stanifer
--- Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
> The Fons Grewe website has an interesting text for those who read
> French. The 1661 edition of
> "Les delices de la campagne" by Nicholas de Bonnefons hs an entire
> chapter on making various
> kinds of bread. All of them begin with the mixing of a starter the
> night before, containing leaven
'leaven'? That wouldn't be referring to an addition of non-wild yeast,
would it?? :)
William de Grandfrt
_______________________________________________
I have no idea. The French word is "levain". I didn't see any mention
of how the leaven is produced.
::pause to re-read chapter:: He says that the smallest and lightest
breads are made from a levai that contains one-sixth of the total
flour, plus very fresh ale barm ("leveure de biere"). In context, it
seems that this was not the leavening used for most breads. This
assumption is strengthened by the definition of "levuere" in the 1694
dictionry of the Academie Francaise: a foam produced by beer, which is
used to raise dough for a certain kind of bread.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 17:48:47 -0600
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP: 17th century French breadmakng
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
> --- Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
>>> The Fons Grewe website has an interesting text for those who read French.
>> The 1661 edition of
>> "Les delices de la campagne" by Nicholas de Bonnefons has an entire
>> chapter on making various
>> kinds of bread. All of them begin with the mixig of a starter the
>> night before, containing leaven
>
> 'leaven'? That wouldn't be referring to an addition of non-wild yeast,
> would it?? :)
>
> William de Grandfort
Most French breads were made from continuous use starters. Until this
century, there was a law in France that prohibited the use of yeast. The
law was rescinded primarily because you need yeast to produce those
extremely light and crusty baugettes. I assume that the term used in the
original text is "levain" (if I remember the right spelling) which in the
context of 17th Century France refers a ball of dough (around 10 pounds or
so) the baker maintains to seed the sponge for a batch of dough.
Yeast is never added to the levain or (presumably) to breads made from the
levain. Yeast is used strictly for specialty breads.
Bear
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 13:02:50 -0600
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:17th century French breadmaking
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
> I'm not sure what distinction Bear (or the French government) is drawing:
> a "continuous use starter" won't work to raise bread unless it contains
> yeast. Now, whether it contains dried or compressed yeast from a company
> like Fleischmann or Red Star, or the baker's own years-old culture of
> yeast and other microorganisms, or yeast from ale barm, is another story.
> (BTW, Thom Leonard mentions the same French law, but he doesn't explain
> clearly exactly what was outlawed.)
> --
> John Elys
What we are talking about is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, baker's yeast. In
other words, thou shalt not yeast thy bread with ale barm.
One needs to keep in mind that ale barm was used primarily in Northern
Europe (the beer and ale countries) while spontaneous starters are common to
the Mediterranean countries.
Bear
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 07:18:06 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Natron
To: Cooks within the SCA
Jeff Elder wrote:
> I am on a slow research for chemical leaveners.
> As a start I am looking for the names ancient people would have used for
> them.
>
> Thank you for any time and assistance in this.
>
> Simon Hondy
Have you read Elizabeth David's work on this?
You might want to start there and check also the references
in Harold McGee's new edition of On Food and Cooking.
Also this has been covered in issues of the Food History Newsletter.
Johnnae
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 09:56:51 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Food History News was Natron
To: Cooks within the SCA
Jeff Elder wrote:
> Where would I find copies of the Food History News Letter?
> Simon Hondy
Food History News is by subscription. Issues may be available
by asking for interlibrary loan through your local library. You can
also purchase them at--
http://www.foodhistorynews.com/index.html
Fall 1992 18th Century Preserves, Chemical Leavenings: Pearlash and
Saleratus
Winter 1992 Feeding the Public, Chemical Leavening: Baking Soda &
Cream of Tartar
are two issues that covers the topic.
You might want to also check out PPC 21 from 1985 where Joop Wettezeen
answers a question from PPC 20 posed about pearlash.
Johnnae
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 16:49:15 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about breads
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
>>>
Has anyone tried hardwood ashes in quickbreads and such, I have a few
receipes calling for them as a leavener, and was wondering how well they
work.
Kirk
<<<
What you are after here is potash, potassium carbonate, which was originally
leached from wood ash. If the authors of the recipes are really calling for
hardwood ash, then they probably didn't know what they were talking about,
since you need to concentrate the potash for it to be effective. Potash
leaven is primarily a Dutch and German thing. It may be hard to find and to
my mind baking soda works better and is an effective replacement.
Bear
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 11:08:41 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] potash leavening
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Lye (caustic potash) is the liquid produced by leaching wood ash containing
potassium hydroxide. Potash is the potassium carbonate produced by
evaporating lye in a pot. The chemistry is rather complex (which means I
don't fully understand the process), but drying the leach concentrates
carbonic acid that in turn produces a high percentage of potassium carbonate
in the solids. When exposed to water in the dough, the potassium carbonate
reverts to potassium hydroxide freeing carbon dioxide.
Use of the term potash in English begins in the latter half of the16th
Century, so its use in German and Dutch predates that.
The lye in German baking is as a solution brushed on the crust to alter the
crust in the baking process. Potash is used as a leaven. Without some
accurate records, there is no way to tell how the two are related other than
both result from leaching wood ash.
Bear
> Bear replied to Kirk with:
>>>>>
>> Has anyone tried hardwood ashes in quickbreads and such, I have a few
>> receipes calling for them as a leavener, and was wondering how well
>> they work.
>>
>> Kirk
>> <<<
>> What you are after here is potash, potassium carbonate, which was originally
>> leached from wood ash.
>
> Is this liquid leached through the ashes, lye? I seem to remember those
> directions as the starting point for making soap.
>
>> If the authors of the recipes are really calling for
>> hardwood ash, then they probably didn't know what they were talking about,
>> since you need to concentrate the potash for it to be effective.
>
> How? Boiling it? Or putting the solution through the ash several times?
> The latter is what I seem to remember from soapmaking directions.
>
>> Potash leaven is primarily a Dutch and German thing.
>
> Prior to 1600 CE? Or only later?
>
> If this solution is indeed lye, I wonder if there is a connection to the
> use of lye in such things as pretzels and bagels? Because those were of
> German origin, right?
>
> Stefan
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 09:06:46 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] malt
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
The leavening agents primarily used were ale barm (liqour from the active
ferment on the top of the ale pot) and starter. Malt was definitely not
used as a leaven. It can be used to feed a leaven or as a sweetener
depending on the quantity used. The earliest recipe I've encountered to add
malt to dough is in Markham's The English Housewife which is just out of
period and would place the practice in Elizabethean times.
I've used both malt extract syrup and powdered diamalt in bread. I prefer
the syrup for sweetening and the powder for boosting the fermentation.
Bear
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 02:47:13 -0400
From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Leavening
To: Cooks within the SCA
This is a gem from another list, which I thought
this group would enjoy. It came in the middle of
a thread about using urine for cleaning. "In the
old days" does not necessarily mean in period, of
course.
Ranvaig
https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509&L=old-irish-
l&T=0&F=&S=&P=11488
> I spent 3 months in the Galway Gaeltacht in the 1950s and had access to a
> very old woman who delighted in teaching/scandalizing the young 'Dub'.
> Among other things she told me that 'in the old days' human urine was
> collected, allowed to go stale in a loosely covered vessel and then "nuair a
> bhí an boladh méith" (when the odor had ripened) the liquid was used in
> bread making. She hastened to point out that the advent of baking soda put
> an end to this use of stale urine. (Heating, as in baking, of ammonium
> bicarbonate releases both ammonia and carbon dioxide, both of which would
> help to leaven the dough. They would also largely escape during the
> baking.) Some years ago I tested the efficacy of ammonium bicarbonate in
> place of sodium bicarbonate in making both white and wholemeal bread. It
> worked, but some (not all) tasters thought the taste was 'a bit different',
> not bad, just different.
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:04:02 -0600
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Use of Soda in period
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
> In researching leavening agents, I ran across a reference to using soda,
> cream of tartar, flour and water, to make leavening -- and my assumption,
> is a starter. What would be a modern equivalent to soda? Or better
> yet, what would be the period form of soda? I know baking soda is thoroughly
> modern and quite
> frowned upon in the Outlands, so, I'm perplexed.
Chemical leavens are meant to be used immediately. Starters develop over
time. Flour and water will create a starter. Soda and cream of tartar will
produce a leaven when hydrated. But the four ingredients together are only
good for producing soda bread.
Sodium carbonate is soda, now or then. It was used to tenderize vegetables
(Roman) or, apparently, as a flavoring agent in one Chinese bread recipe. I
know of no reference to it's use as a leaven. Sodium bicarbonate, the
modern baking soda, is preferred because it doesn't release all of its CO2
until heated. AFAIK, sodium bicarbonate was not used in period. Baking
powder is a combination of sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar and
usually a third compound that releases CO2 at higher temperatures for
a good rise.
Hartshorne (probably ammonium carbonate rather than actual deer antler) was
used in Germany in the late 16th, early 17th Centuries as a chemical leaven
(still is for that matter), but it would probably not have been used
with a bread.
I've a number of different chemical leavens from the late 17th and 18th
Centuries, but no trails leading back into period.
Given a Mediterranean climate, the most probable leaven for bunelos is a
sourdough starter, but you can fudge it with baking yeast. If you want real
starter, try two cups of flour and one cup of water mixed together in a
bowl, cover with plastic, and leave it on the counter for a few days. One
cup of starter will leaven about 2 to 4 pounds of bread. Replace one cup of
the liquor in your recipe with one cup of starter.
> I probably won't go with that idea. I will probably use live yeast, but
> the concept intrigues me. The reference mentions using plant ash to
> render soda. Sounds fairly caustic to me.
>
> Thanks for any advice you all can offer a new cook!!
> Constanza Marina de Huelva
Potash, also referred to as lye, and a name for several different compounds.
In this case, you're talking potassium carbonate rather than sodium
hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, which put the caustic in caustic soda. I
think my ramblings on this subject are out in the Florilegium.
Bear
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:50:28 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Random food-related questions....
To: Cooks within the SCA
> 2. Has anyone played with ale barm much? A brewing friend just gave me two
> jars of it (about three cups total), from a batch of brown ale, and I'd like
> to use it in some bread, but don't know how to go about it. It's a fairly
> substantial slurry of yeasts and such at this point. My thought was to use
> it almost like a sourdough starter, but any advice would be much
> appreciated!
I've used it as a direct starter to make a sponge, and I've also
cultivated it as a starter (treating it as you would a jar of starter
someone gave you. Both work well; using it to make a sponge directly
will give you a more beer-y bread.
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:19:00 -0600
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Random food-related questions....
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
> 2. Has anyone played with ale barm much? A brewing friend just gave me two
> jars of it (about three cups total), from a batch of brown ale, and I'd like
> to use it in some bread, but don't know how to go about it. It's a fairly
> substantial slurry of yeasts and such at this point. My thought was to use
> it almost like a sourdough starter, but any advice would be much
> appreciated!
Use it fast or feed it (water and malt extract).. If you don't, it will
die. There is also a possibility that it will be infected by mold if you
try to hold it. It is not a starter and will not keep like a starter. It
is a yeast solution equivalent to dry active yeast proofed in some
water.
Is it actual barm (the scum off the top of the ale pot) or is it the dregs
(the stuff on the bottom of the pot)? If it is the latter, you may want to
wash (dilute) and strain it. Use a cup of it to a couple of cups of flour
to make a sponge, let it set for about 24 hours, then use it to make your
bread.
Bear
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:39:26 -0500
From: "grizly"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Random food-related questions....
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
-----Original Message-----
>>>> Use it fast or feed it (water and malt extract).. If you don't, it will
die. There is also a possibility that it will be infected by mold if you
try to hold it. It is not a starter and will not keep like a starter. It
is a yeast solution equivalent to dry active yeast proofed in some
water.
Is it actual barm (the scum off the top of the ale pot) or is it the dregs
(the stuff on the bottom of the pot)? If it is the latter, you may want to
wash (dilute) and strain it. Use a cup of it to a couple of cups of flour
to make a sponge, let it set for about 24 hours, then use it to make your
bread.< < < < < <
If you leave it alone without feeding it, and it escapes infection, you will
have autolysis to deal with. that is the death and degredation of the yeast
cells. You will get a very distinctive off-yeasty taste when this starts to
occur. We work with this in brewing a lot when making "aged" beverages.
You have to siphon the desired beverage of the yeast silt at the bottom
occasionally to prevent that yeast bite from autolysis.
If you want to keep it alive, boil some (quarter cup?) malt extract or plain
sugar in a cup of water. Cool it down and add to the yeast. That will keep
the reproducing and eating for a couple of weeks. You'll get CO2 release,
so don't seal the jar tight . . . put an unpowdered latex glove over the jar
with a tiny pinhole in one or two of the fingers (or a balloon if it will
fit). You'll want to pour off the liquid every three or so weeks to keep
the dead from breaking up in it.
You might get a few weeks out of it, but the chance of a bacteria or mold
grows with every time you open it to feed it. He didn't give you an
ingredient so much as a hobby :o)
niccolo
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 20:04:29 +0000
From: "Holly Stockley"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Random food-related questions....
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Use it fast or feed it (water and malt extract).. If you don't, it will
> die. There is also a possibility that it will be infected by mold if you
> try to hold it. It is not a starter and will not keep like a starter. It
> is a yeast solution equivalent to dry active yeast proofed in some water.
>
> Is it actual barm (the scum off the top of the ale pot) or is it the dregs
> (the stuff on the bottom of the pot)? If it is the latter, you may want to
> wash (dilute) and strain it. Use a cup of it to a couple of cups of flour
> to make a sponge, let it set for about 24 hours, then use it to make your
> bread.
I've used it a number of times, and find that the rise time needed varies
significantly based on the strain of yeast my husband has used.
I've also had a perenial problem with a bitter flavor that we've attributed
to the hops. I hadn't yet tried it with his gruit ale, as he doesn't make
it very often. It doesn't seem to matter if I use the barm from an actively
fermenting vessel or the trub after the ale has been racked off, the problem
remains. I've washed it, run a two-generation starter, etc., and still have
the bitterness to one degree or another. I'd be grateful for wisdom from
wiser heads than mine!
That said, I have a starter on my counter made from an English Cider yeast
that is doing fabulously. It seems to be attenuating to life in flour and
water and gets more reliable with time. Either that, or it's gotten
contaminated with the regular bread yeast in my bake-happy kitchen and
that's slowly taking over. No bitterness issue with this one.
Femke
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:09:39 -0600
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] masa
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
> I'm behind on my reading so apologies if this was already answered:
>
> This could be a totally mistaken impression, but here's my understanding
> of "massa".
>
> Since the ladies baked their bread each day, they would prepare the dough
> and before baking (not sure if it would be before the first or second
> rise) a lump of the dough would be pinched off and saved. The next day,
> that bit of dough would be added into the new dough. Since it has the yeast
> or other leavening agents from the previous day's bread, it would help with
> the rising of the next dough. A bit of the new dough is then saved for
> tomorrow's baking. And the process goes on.
"Massa" means dough, but in this case it is dough retained for leavening as
you state. For home baking, the "pinch" of dough is a lump about the size
of your fist, approximately a cup. For a commercial baker, it is likely a
ten pound football of dough.
Rather than being simply added to the new dough, the massa should be broken
apart in the liquor for the new batch, then mixed into the flour. This
ensures that the spread of the yeast and lactobacilli through the dough. In
commercial baking, this step would be used to create a sponge from which the
starter would be recovered, then the sponge would be broken apart in liquor
and added to the dry ingredients to form the actual dough, preventing
contamination of the starter by any of the other ingredients of the bread.
Whether or not this procedure was used by the commercial or home bakers
within SCA period is unknown.
A second rise is not necessary to producing bread and I have found no direct
evidence as to whether the second rise was a baking technique used in
period. The appearance of a dough box in a 16th Century woodcut of a
baker's shop suggests, but does not confirm the use of two rises. Second
rise was well established by the mid-19th Century and I'm still in the
process of tracing its use.
> Again, from my understanding *only*, ale barm is not a common leavening agent
> in Spain, but they do have yeast. As Giano mentioned, they do have
> sourdoughs, too. (As a side note, I've found information on winemaking in
> "Spain", but nothing so far on beers/ales.)
My research suggests that northern Europe with its beers and ales more
commonly used ale barm while the Mediterranean countries tended to use
sourdough starters until modern manufacture and refrigeration made yeast
commonly available. The use of ale barm as leavening was introduced into
Italy in the 2nd Century BCE by Gallic bakers, but apparently fell into
disuse as the empire declined.
> One thing I haven't yet found, that maybe another Spaniard or a Spanish
> expert could answer: Did the Spanish use "dough troughs" like in some
> other parts of Europe?
>
> -- Constanza Marina de Huelva
Almost certainly. Dough troughs appear in the household inventories of
Spanish Jews and, IIRC, there are some Moorish examples to be found in
Malaga.
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:18:18 -0700
From: Lilinah
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Borax as leavening?
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
It'll be a while until i finish reading "Annals of the Caliphs'
Kitchens" - i'm working my way through the introductory matter, and
periodically plunging into the cookbook text and the glossaries.
While taking a plunge, i read that borax was used as a leavening in
Near and Middle Eastern breads. The recipes often don't specify what
sort of leavening to use. So i'm curious, never having cooked with
borax... how does it work? Does it function somewhat like baking soda?
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:38:31 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Borax as leavening?
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
I can see adding borax as a tenderizing agent, but I question the leavening.
The chemical leavens I'm most familiar have a CO3 molecule that converts to
CO2 and water. Borax is NA4B2O7. During disassociation (if I got the term
right), I would expect the O7 to recombine as H2O rather than O2. The
fastest way I know to test would be prepare a recipe and see what
happens.
We discussed a similar issue in Soup for the Quan. I believe the discussion
is in the Florilegium and includes Paul Buell's response to our
comments.
I've never heard of using borax as a leaven, so it would be interesting to
see if this is the author's interpetation or if there is source material
that supports the use.
Bear
> It'll be a while until i finish reading "Annals of the Caliphs'
> Kitchens" - i'm working my way through the introductory matter, and
> periodically plunging into the cookbook text and the glossaries.
>
> While taking a plunge, i read that borax was used as a leavening in
> Near and Middle Eastern breads. The recipes often don't specify what
> sort of leavening to use. So i'm curious, never having cooked with
> borax... how does it work? Does it function somewhat like baking soda?
> --
> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:13:12 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: ahrenshav at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA
On Feb 25, 2009, at 2:28 PM, Huette von Ahrens wrote:
<<< The fact that hartshorn was used in some medicinal recipes does not
mean that they were used as a leavener.
Huette >>>
And, we also need to be really, really clear, when we speak of
hartshorn (and by "we" I mean our sources, as well), whether we're
referring to hartshorn, the gelatin source, made from powdered horn
and similar to isinglass (the dried sturgeon-swim-bladder gelatin
source, which in turn is _not_ sodium silicate), and not hartshorn,
a.k.a. baker's ammonia, salts of hartshorn, and ammonium carbonate.
Which may or may not be made from actual horns of actual harts, among
other sources.
Oddly enough, I just found an interesting website which essentially
claims that the use of hartshorn salts as a leavening agent have a
linked history to that of the development of baking powder, and that
both are 19th century innovations based on attempts to specifically
create chemical leaveners, whose primary advantage was considered to
be that, unlike yeast, they don't break down and eat up to 3% of the
flour they're leavening.
http://www.electronic-chemicals.basf.com/p02/CAPortal/en_GB/portal/abc_ammoniumcarbonat/content/Abnehmerbranchen_Anwendungen/Lebensmittel_Food/Ammoniumcarbonat/Geschichte
Or maybe some of you better try here:
http://tinyurl.com/bht9j7
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:51:50 -0600
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
On Feb 25, 2009, at 6:30 PM, Terry Decker wrote:
<<< As I recall, ammonium carbonate as a leaven definitely turns up in the
18th Century along with a number of other chemical leavens. There are
some 16th and 17th Century German references to hartshorn, some of which
are definitely deer antler and some which might be either. >>>
The BASF site gives a date of something like 1823 for heavy
experimentation into chemical leavening; it could have taken place
earlier, or it could be someone interpreting "some time around 1800", or
some similar phrase, somewhat loosely.
What has me a little concerned is that although I keep seeing references
to chemical leavening in 17th century Germany and Scandinavia, it's like
I'm seeing references to the references, "we all know that" such-and-such
is the case, etc. We do know that chemical leavenings appear in recipes
for some baked goods that are very old indeed, but it's not always clear
that the recipes are all that old. While I'd love to be more edumacated
on this subject, at the moment it does seem conceivable that we might be
looking at a slightly more benign version of the Big Lie political
tactic, an untruth which, if repeated often enough, becomes widely
accepted as the truth.
Can anybody cite some specific, clear, primary or near-primary source
reference to hartshorn as a leavening? It would presumably have to be the
ammonia salt, and not simply the ground-up horn, which, as I recall, does
appear in jelly/leach recipes as a gelling agent, like pig's feet, cow
hooves, isinglass, etc.
The fact that we've been talking about this here on SCA-Cooks for a
billion years (give or take) doesn't count as a primary source ;-).
Adamantius
-----------------------------
An excellent considration. Somewhere among my papers, I have what purports
to be a translation of a recipe from the 1590's that uses hartshorn as
leavening. I have yet to find the source to determine if it is an accurate
translation or modern fudging of an older recipe. If I can locate it, I'll
post it. Beyond that, my personal collection of recipes has mostly mid to
late 19th Century recipes with chemical leavens.
Root suggests that actual hart's horn was used as a leaven in the 16th
Century and was replaced by ammonium carbonate. I'm not sure how to produce
an edible leavening gas from bone, so this statement is questionable, until
proven or disproven.
The Oxford Companion to Food, under baking powder. give a 1790 date for the
use of pearl ash as a leavening agent prior to the creation of baking
powder. No reference to hartshorn.
It is worth noting neither source provides a primary source for the
information.
Bear
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:03:46 -0500
From: "Kingstaste"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'"
I have wondered about this for years, I
could never figure out how an antler gave anything like a chemical rise.
I found this on OChef's Q&A page. They suggest heating (not 'burning', just
'heating') releases the gas that produces the leaven.
http://www.ochef.com/539.htm
"Hartshorn is a leavening agent, and a precursor to the baking soda and
baking powder that everyone uses these days. Hartshorn's virtue is that it
readily breaks down into a gas when heated (causing the leavening), but
unless it escapes completely, it leaves a hint or more of the smell of
ammonia. For that reason, it is generally used only in cookie recipes where
it doesn't have to fight its way out of a deep batter."
Christianna
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:15:44 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chemical leavening
To: Cooks within the SCA
On Feb 26, 2009, at 8:48 AM, Terry Decker wrote:
A < That was more or less my understanding, too. We seem to be sorta
dancing around in circles and never actually getting to the point
of proving the point one way or the other, but because we keep
talking about it...>
TD < I did a little digging in the collection and turned up a rather
gaudy reprint of what is supposed to be an American cookbook from
1787. I haven't chased down the manuscript history, so I'll accept
the 1787 date with caveats. It mentions soda in a bread recipe,
which may or may not be a leaven. It also mentions a new product,
saleratus. Saleratus is sodium or potassium bicarbonate used as a
leaven. >>
I'd been hearing about saleratus for years, and knew it was supposed
to be a chemical leavening, but never really knew what it was, and
just assumed it was something in the baking soda family. By the
sheerest of coincidences (although I'm rapidly approaching what
amounts to a religious belief that there are few to no coincidences),
just yesterday I opened a copy of The National Cookbook, by a Lady of
Philadelphia, c. 1863, and the chemical leavening of choice for that
volume is saleratus, except it is spelled sal aeratus, which had me
saying, "Duh." Oh, OK. Latin (sort of). Aerating salts. Gotcha.
TD < Root suggests that actual hart's horn was used as a leaven in the
16th Century and was replaced by ammonium carbonate. I'm not
sure how to produce an edible leavening gas from bone, so this
statement is questionable, until proven or disproven. >
A < OK, but if we're looking at the alkaloid properties of bone, why
use horn? Does processed horn include the bone, or just the
proteinaceous outer layer? -- I thought the latter. If the natural
descendant of the process is ammonium carbonate, you'd need that
nitrogen atom, right, and if it's coming from an animal, doesn't
that suggest protein, collagen, keratin, that sort of thing?
How do you get CO2 or another leavening gas directly from protein?
I think the answer is you don't, that you have to turn it into ash
and distill from that an ammonia salt. >
TD < The critical component of the ammonium carbonate is the CO3 molecule
which releases CO2 when broken down with a weak acid. >
So the ammonia is a byproduct and not the actual leavening gas in this
case...
TD < I did a quick search for the chemical composition of antler and came
up with this: http://www.deertracking.com/library/aug2002_antlers3.html
. From what I see there would be nothing that would react in the
appropriate manner in unmodified antler. >
Yes, that was my take, too. I truly believe that if actual powdered
hartshorn (rather than a more processed distillate or a synthesized
chemical version) appears in period recipes, it's not there as a
leavening agent. From what little I know about chemistry (which I
nearly failed in one of the finest schools in the country!), those
jigsaw puzzle pieces simply don't fit together to produce a gas in any
quantity.
TD < Your suggestion about burning the bone makes a great deal of
sense. Burning the bone and leaching the ashes should produce a
form of potash, of which potassium hydroxide would be the most
reactive leavening. >
It might be instructive to take another look at Hugh Plat's Secrets of
Distillation. He seems to be burning a lot of salt, oyster shells, and
what have you, in doing what he's doing. Now I've got a new reason to
look more closely at that stuff.
TD < The Oxford Companion to Food, under baking powder. give a 1790
date for the use of pearl ash as a leavening agent prior to the
creation of baking powder. No reference to hartshorn. >
A < I seem to recall the BASF essay pointing out that potash, pearl
ash, and finally soda ash, were used early on (and 1790 sounds
about right) in conjunction with sourdough, to increase aeration. >
TD < It is worth noting neither source provides a primary source for
the information. >
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:53:36 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another leavening agent was Baker of Bagels
in the 11th C
To: Cooks within the SCA
Ok while checking in the circa 950 AD
Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth-Century
Baghdadi Cookbook. English Translation with Introduction and Glossary by
Nawal Nasrallah.
I came across mention of another leavening agent---
On Page 563 under an entry for khamir /khumra
/Nasrallah writes: "fresh yeast, usually a piece of fully fermented
dough saved from a previous batch. Medieval bakers also used
/buraq/ 'borax' as a leavening agent. Adding generous amounts
of yeast and borax is recommended in making bread because
fully fermented bread is believed to be easier to digest.
(Ibn al-Baytar 228)"
Borax?!?
Johnnae
emilio szabo wrote:
<<< Johnnae, if you could check the Nasrallah translation and see whether or not there are any recipes for bagel-like things, that would be great.
Many thanks, E. >>>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:12:08 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another leavening agent was Baker of Bagels
in the 11th C
To: Cooks within the SCA
On Mar 31, 2009, at 6:53 PM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
<<< Ok while checking in the circa 950 AD
Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth-
Century Baghdadi Cookbook. English Translation with Introduction and
Glossary by Nawal Nasrallah.
I came across mention of another leavening agent---
On Page 563 under an entry for khamir /khumra
/Nasrallah writes: "fresh yeast, usually a piece of fully fermented
dough saved from a previous batch. Medieval bakers also used
/buraq/ 'borax' as a leavening agent. Adding generous amounts
of yeast and borax is recommended in making bread because
fully fermented bread is believed to be easier to digest.
(Ibn al-Baytar 228)"
Borax?!?
Johnnae >>>
I understand borax is sometimes used in small amounts in hand-pulled
noodles in China, and I think it may appear in some of the wheat-dough
recipes for mantou in "A Soup for the Qan," although I could be
remembering that last part incorrectly.
I believe it's roughly akin to baking soda in pH, and it can be used
industrially as an antifungal, so one possibility is as a yeast
inhibitor, but for all I know it could have something to do with
gluten extensibility, hence its use in pulled noodles.
If that's the case, I could see it appearing in bagels for a lighter,
more elastic dough.
Bear? Tag, you're it.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:32:46 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another leavening agent was Baker of Bagels
in the 11th C
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Curious. Sodium tetraborate decahydrate (borax) shouldn't react in a way to
act as a leavening. It is, however, a water softener and as such could
improve the quality of the bread. I note that it is used with yeast and not
as a separate leaven.
This might also be the reason for the "soda" in the recipe for bread in
Feast for the Qan.
Bear
<<< Ok while checking in the circa 950 AD
Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth-Century
Baghdadi Cookbook. English Translation with Introduction and Glossary by
Nawal Nasrallah.
I came across mention of another leavening agent---
On Page 563 under an entry for khamir /khumra
/Nasrallah writes: "fresh yeast, usually a piece of fully fermented
dough saved from a previous batch. Medieval bakers also used
/buraq/ 'borax' as a leavening agent. Adding generous amounts
of yeast and borax is recommended in making bread because
fully fermented bread is believed to be easier to digest.
(Ibn al-Baytar 228)"
Borax?!?
Johnnae >>>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:47:59 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another leavening agent was Baker of Bagels
in the 11th C
To: Cooks within the SCA
David Waines did this article
Cereals, Bread and Society: An Essay on the Staff of Life in Medieval Iraq
David Waines Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient,
Vol. 30, No. 3 (1987), pp. 255-285 (article consists of 31 pages)
It's in JSTOR so I will get in later and get it.
Borax is mentioned in it. "Another type, bardzidhaj, differed from the
above in containing /borax/ *..."
It's rather hard to find but *Soup for the Qan does list Borax. It's on
page 77 in a section on breads.
It's said to be connected with a bread coming out of Armenia.
Johnnae
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:37:46 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another leavening agent was Baker of Bagels
in the 11th C
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
<<< http://slurpandburp.blogspot.com/2006/01/imbb-22-lamian-chinese-stretched.html
This is a fairly lengthy blog diary on northern Chinese pulled noodles,
containing something of an argument between readers/posters on whether
they do, or should, contain a small amount of borax, and why.
The consensus among the people that think it belongs in those noodles
seems to be that in noodles, it's about gluten extensibility, which,
given the high gluten flour traditionally used for bagels, could be said
to make some sense.
Adamantius >>>
I knew I had seen information on water hardness and gluten formation. There
is an entire section in Paula Figoni's How Baking Works.
According to Figoni, minerals harden gluten, making the strands so elastic
that they don't stretch properly to trap the CO2 in fermentation. The
higher the gluten content, the worse the problem. When you reduce the water
hardness, you reduce the spring back in the gluten strands and allow them to
properly extend.
The most common minerals in hard water are calcium and magnesium. Borax
will react with calcium and magnesium in solution neutralizing the effect on
the gluten (I suspect the minerals will precipitate out and become part of
the solid matrix, but I haven't researched that). Interestingly, desert
regions often have hard water. Northern China, North Africa, the Middle
East?
There is also a pH factor involved, calcium carbonate being on the acidic
end of the scale and borax being basic, but that's a little different from
the issue of hardness.
Next time I'm in NM, I'll try adding a little baking soda to the mix to see
if I can get a better rise.
Bear
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 20:13:43 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Leven: yeast or sourdough?
Johnnae quoted:
<<< OED defines leaven as a noun as "A substance which is added to dough
to produce fermentation; spec. a quantity of fermenting dough reserved
from a previous batch to be used for this purpose (cf. sour-dough)."
With quotations such as:
1471 RIPLEY Comp. Alch. IX. viii. in Ashm. (1652) 175 Lyke as flower
of Whete made into Past, Requyreth Ferment whych Leven we call.
1699 EVELYN Acetaria 53 Add a Pound of Wheat-flour, fermented with a
little Levain. >>>
So, does this mean that baking soda, baking powder, hartshorn etc. are not
considered leavens, since they don't work through fermentation?
Stefan
----------
A leaven is any substance that when added to dough causes it to rise. Since
the process of fermentation was not understood until the 19th Century
anything that caused the effect of raising dough might easily be considered
an act of fermentation in period.
Bear
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 06:28:30 -0700
From: David Friedman
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Bakers borax again
I've been reading al-Warraq and am still puzzled over the borax question.
According to the author and the translator, there are two kinds of
borax: Natron and baker's borax (aka Armenian borax). The latter is used
in food, both to make a glossy surface on bread and, apparently, as a
leavening! The translator says that it is sodium borate, which is what
is now called borax--and never explains the chemical difference between
the two kinds, although she does describe their differing appearance.
But according to Wikipedia, natron doesn't have any boron in it. It's a
mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and about 17% sodium
bicarbonate--aka baking soda. Which suggests that perhaps bakers' borax
is baking soda, or some natural mineral that consists largely of baking
soda.
In which case we not only have a period chemical leavening, we have
period baking soda!
-- David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:47:09 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bakers borax again
E.J. Brill's First Encyclopedia of Islam 1913-1936, list several other types
of "borax." Obviously, borax is being used as a generic name for a number
of naturally occurring compounds rather than as a specific mineral, sodium
borate. The translator is correct, as far as the translator goes.
As for natron, the primary constituent is soda ash, sodium carbonate, which
is a natural water softener. There are modern bread recipes which call for
both yeast and buraq, suggesting to me that it may be the water softening
properties that are desired. As a generalization, soft water makes better
bread. At 17 percent, you would need roughly 2 Tablespoons of natron to get
1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate, so again I would think that the intent was
to soften the water with the added benefit of a little chemical leavening.
Bear
<<< According to the author and the translator, there are two kinds of borax:
Natron and baker's borax (aka Armenian borax). The latter is used in food,
both to make a glossy surface on bread and, apparently, as a leavening!
The translator says that it is sodium borate, which is what is now called
borax--and never explains the chemical difference between the two kinds,
although she does describe their differing appearance.
But according to Wikipedia, natron doesn't have any boron in it. It's a
mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and about 17% sodium
bicarbonate--aka baking soda. Which suggests that perhaps bakers' borax is
baking soda, or some natural mineral that consists largely of baking soda.
In which case we not only have a period chemical leavening, we have period
baking soda!
-- David Friedman >>>
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:39:54 -0700
From: David Friedman
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bakers borax again
al-Warraq is pretty explicit that it's leavening. In one of the
recipes, discussing what can go wrong, he mentions the possibility of
dead yeast and suggests adding more buraq to make up for it.
"If the yeast was bad, add some more borax to the batter." (p. 415)
Nasrallah says it was also used to give bread a shiny surface, but I
don't think there are any recipes in al-Warraq that do that. Any guess
what that might imply about the nature of bakers' borax?
--
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:41:17 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bakers borax again
That is an excellent quote. I obviously need to add a copy of the work to
my collection.
While I haven't used sodium carbonate this way, potash, potassium carbonate,
is often used in German baking to glaze pretzels and breads. Dissolve a
small amount in water and brush it onto the crust before baking.
Thinking about this after imbibing my coffee, I realized that, sodium
bicarbonate aside, any of the carbonates will, in the presence of water or
an acid, will produce CO2 for leavening. If you use water, the hydroxides
produced by the reaction may impart a soapy taste to the bread, which can be
counter-acted by using enough weak acid, sour milk, lemon juice, etc., to
neutalize the hydroxides.
The fact that al-Warraq knows natron to be a leavening agent, suggests that
a similar use of carbonate (IIRC) in Soup for the Qan may also have been as
leavening rather than as a tenderizing agent as discussed a few years ago.
Bear
<<< al-Warraq is pretty explicit that it's leavening. In one of the recipes,
discussing what can go wrong, he mentions the possibility of dead yeast
and suggests adding more buraq to make up for it.
"If the yeast was bad, add some more borax to the batter." (p. 415)
Nasrallah says it was also used to give bread a shiny surface, but I
don't think there are any recipes in al-Warraq that do that. Any guess
what that might imply about the nature of bakers' borax? >>>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:51:12 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bakers borax again
<<< Googling for information on giving bread a glossy crust, I found a
reference to using lye for Bavarian pretzels--and the comment that you
could get a similar effect by using baking soda! It sounds as though what
matters is that it's a base.
--
David Friedman >>>
Terry Decker wrote:
<<< It may be the carbonate rather than just being a base. Just one of those
things that needs some experimentation.
Bear >>>
"Craig Daniel" said:
<<< Lye isn't a carbonate, though; it's NAoH. >>>
You are thinking of lye in a modern chemical context where the word commonly
refers to sodium hydroxide but may also refer to potassium hydroxide. The
lye used in period German baking was hydrated from potash (potassium
carbonate) which is produced by leaching hard wood ash then boiling the
liquid to produce a residue (potash). In solution, potash breaks down into
potassium hydroxide, carbonic acid and carbon dioxide. Modernly, the term
potash has been used to describe a number of potassium compounds that are
not within the original definition.
Thinking about the chemical breakdown and looking at a couple of references,
David is probably correct that it is the alkaline solution that produces the
glaze and darkens the crust. If it is the base, then it shouldn't matter
much whether one uses sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.
Still it sounds like some fun experiments to see just what just what kind of
crust the different compounds produce.
Bear
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2012 20:45:16 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bakers borax again
"Buraq" is a very general term and Brill shows more than two usages. It
appears that the collective reference is to any whitish crystalline
substance which can be used as flux in soldering. Armenian borax (modernly)
appears to be borax pentahydrate while US borax is borax decahydrate neither
is of use as a chemical leaven. The first usage of the term Armenian borax
is in a Coptic manuscript roughly contemporary to al-Warraq (IIRC). I have
seen no evidence that bakers' borax and Armenian borax are synonymous.
Redhouse's "A Turkish and English Lexicon" most helpfully defines "bakers'
borax" as "soda used by bakers". Oh, thank you for that insight. I really
would like to find an accurate usable definition.
I doubt if baker's borax is pure sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), which was
first produced in 1791, but some form of sodium carbonate with a small
percentage of bicarb (like natron) is certainly possible. The leavening
effect would not be as pronounced as with pure sodium bicarb. Sodium
carbonate alone would produce the glazing effect on the bread and might
provide a very minimal leavening.
Bear
<<< I've been reading al-Warraq and am still puzzled over the borax question.
According to the author and the translator, there are two kinds of borax:
Natron and baker's borax (aka Armenian borax). The latter is used in
food, both to make a glossy surface on bread and, apparently, as a
leavening! The translator says that it is sodium borate, which is what is
now called borax--and never explains the chemical difference between the
two kinds, although she does describe their differing appearance.
But according to Wikipedia, natron doesn't have any boron in it. It's a
mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and about 17% sodium
bicarbonate--aka baking soda. Which suggests that perhaps bakers' borax is
baking soda, or some natural mineral that consists largely of baking soda.
In which case we not only have a period chemical leavening, we have period
baking soda!
-- David Friedman >>>
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 21:08:20 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Reasons why period cakes aren't modern cakes
<<< Are you saying that Ammonium carbonate was used as a chemical leavening in
SCA period? I wasn't aware of it.
David Friedman >>>
Ammonium carbonate and sal ammoniac (AKA hartshorn or salt of hartshorn)
were originally derived from red deer (Cervus elaphus) horn by dry
distillation. Hartshorn makes a limited appearance in German baking toward
the end of the 16th Century, but it in more common in 17th and 18th Century
baking. It was largely replaced by baking soda.
Bear
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2013 11:24:37 -0500
From: "Terry Decker"
To: , "Cooks within the SCA"
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Hartshorn Re: Reasons why period cakes aren't
modern cakes
There is a recipe for "Water of harteshorne" in Heironymus Brunschwig's The
vertuose boke of distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of herbes, 1527. I
suspect this is an English translation of his Liber de arte distillandi
simplicia et composita (Little book of distillation) published in 1500. The
recipe is one of simple distillation of broken horn in water.
English sources, just out of period and beyond, use the antler as a source
of gelatine. As far as I can determine this is produced by the simple
process of breaking up the antler and boiling it to extract the gelatine
rather than true distillation.
Oil of hartshorn is produced by destructive distillation, where antler is
sealed in a container and then heated to break down the antler into
constituent molecules. It is pyrolitic process similar to coking or
cracking. Salt of hartshorn, a mix of sal ammoniac and ammonium carbonate,
is the extract of the condensate from distilling oil of hartshorn without
additional liquid (dry distillation). Salt of hartshorn is the original
chemical leaven. Also, there is the question of dating the use of these
processes to produce hartshorn in period. Modernly, ammonium carbonate,
baker's ammonia, is produced by mixing ammonia and carbon dioxide.
I have a translation of a German recipe that purports to be from 1590 which
uses hartshorn as a leaven. I have yet to locate the source of the recipe,
so it is of questionable provenance. Other than that, I have no particular
evidence of hartshorn being used as a leaven in period.
Baking with hartshorn produces ammonia and a strong odor of ammonia which
limits its use to thin bake goods which allow the trapped ammonia to
disipate. Because of this, the recipes which use it are likely to be small
cakes. I would expect to find it in a recipe for Springerle, a cookie which
uses hartshorn modernly and whose origin dates back to 14th or 15th Century
Scwabia. Unfortunately, the earliest Springerle recipe I have located is
Austrian from 1686 and does not list hartshorn.
Bear
Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:24:50 -0400
From: Elise Fleming
To: sca-cooks
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Reasons why period cakes aren't modern cakes
Bear wrote:
<<< Ammonium carbonate and sal ammoniac (AKA hartshorn or salt of
hartshorn) were originally derived from red deer (Cervus elaphus) horn
by dry distillation. >>>
That's what I found, too, on Wikipedia. However, I wonder if that was
done in period. There was a query on a Twitter account ( at tudorcook) that
I follow where someone asked how hartshorn was prepared for use.
Tudor Cook mentioned that "most of the recipes seem to call for boiling
6+ hours or...overnight before letting cool, straining then..." There
also was mention of rasping, perhaps before boiling. The inquirer was
Dr. Annie Gray and I don't know what the results of her experimentation
were. If an actual answer to the experiment is wanted, I could try to
find out."
Alys K.
--
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
Edited by Mark S. Harris leavening-msg Page 28 of 28